Duffy dominates for second Commonwealth Gold; Legault continues magical season with 10th

So what are they going to name for her now? After winning the gold medal at the Olympics last year, Bermuda created a national holiday for Flora Duffy, and the Queen even got on board, making the three-time world champ a “Dame” at the end of last year.

Duffy put on a masterful display of racing today, flying through the run to easily claim gold over Britain’s Georgia Taylor Brown. Coming into the race there had been lots of hype about the potential close race between the two, but Duffy appeared especially motivated to take another gold medal and, as the field quickly learned, there’s nothing quite as frightening to compete against as a motivated Flora Duffy.

After the swim Duffy and Taylor-Brown joined up with a group that included swim leader Beth Potter (yeah, the one who went to the Olympics as a runner in 2016), Britain’s Sophie Coldwell and Canadian Emy Legault.

Then, as Legault put it, “Flora decided to go at 8 km and only Georgia was able to go with her.”

Duffy and Taylor-Brown came off the bike well clear of the chase group that was now down to three, and suddenly finding itself having to hold off the charge from a larger chase group that included the other two Canadians in the field, Amelie Kretz and Dominika Jamnicky.

Related: Emy Legault’s three podium breakthrough

Duffy flew through T2 to hit the run course with a bit of a lead and proceeded to open up even more time as the 5 km run progressed. The win never seemed in doubt, and neither did Taylor-Brown’s silver medal as the two duplicated their finish positions from the Tokyo Olympics last year.

Potter would run clear of the rest of the chasers for the bronze medal, with Coldwell hanging on for fourth. Legault couldn’t hold off the charge from some of the women in the second chase group and would take 10th, with Jamnicky charging hard to improve on her finish from the 2018 Games by one spot for 13th, with Kretz making a return to racing after a long break with 15th.

You can find full results from today’s women’s race here.